SANCTIONS AGAINST AZERBAIJANI MPS ARE EXPECTED

07.05.2018 / Council of Europe Urged to Act Against Lawmakers Tied to Bribery

Two weeks after an investigation found strong evidence that members of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly had accepted bribes in return for silencing discussion of human rights violations in Azerbaijan, European governments are demanding sanctions against the lawmakers.

In a letter sent on Friday to Michele Nicoletti, the assembly’s president, Anders Samuelsen, the Danish foreign minister and chairman of the council’s Committee of Ministers, described the corruption case as “deeply worrying” and called for the assembly to act “promptly and strongly.”

The lawmakers — including Pedro Agramunt, a former president of the assembly and a senator in Spain’s conservative governing party — have been accused of accepting money, jewelry, prostitutes, and paid hotel stay in oil-rich Azerbaijan.